FWC OFFICER CREDITED WITH SAVING CHILD’S LIFE

May 5, 2005
CONTACT: Officer Donald Jenkins (850) 265-3676
or Lt. Drew Nelson (850) 265-3676

A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) law enforcement officer on vacation with his family is being credited with saving the life of a small child at a Georgia theme park after the child choked on a piece of hard candy.

Donald Jenkins, an FWC officer assigned to Bay County, his wife Polly and their kids, along with James and Kristi Kirkland and their kids, went to Wild Adventures Theme Park at Valdosta, Ga. April 10. Jenkins, a 15-year veteran FWC officer, had his law enforcement training put to the test when he heard a lifeguard blowing several quick blasts on a whistle next to a pool.

“There were three lifeguards and they were trying to do the ‘adult Heimlich maneuver’ on this little girl but it wasn’t working,” Jenkins said. “She was already limp and turning blue. I told them I was a law enforcement officer and give me the girl.”

In the background Jenkins could hear the child’s mother pleading for someone to do something. He quickly took little three-year-old Jade Stippling, put her head over his left arm face-down and gave four quick thrusts or hits to the child’s lower back. Almost immediately, a piece of hard candy shot out and the little girl began gasping for air.

“It was a great feeling,” Jenkins said. “The mother started crying and was hugging me. I was glad I was there.”

The Kirkland’s 15-year-old daughter Kalynn saw the child resuscitated and said Jenkins was a hero.
The incident happened around 1 p.m. and several times that afternoon the mother and child found Jenkins and his wife in the park and thanked them.

Jenkins never got the mother’s name and doesn’t know who the mother is, or where she and the child live.

This isn’t the first time Jenkins’ training has been needed. Right after he joined the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission in 1990, he was at a fast food restaurant on Panama City Beach when a middle-aged man began choking. Jenkins performed the Heimlich maneuver on him in front of other patrons and saved the man’s life.

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